


is this thriving?

by NoWindows



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Angst, Corruption, Gen, Mind Control, Not Beta Read, Not revised, i heard bdubs implying doc isn't himself and i blacked out and this was waiting for me, keralis has wingding eyes, new chapter incoming; adding tags relevant to said chapter now before i forget, whatever keralis is he sure isn't human
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:56:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23345803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoWindows/pseuds/NoWindows
Summary: He grinds. He optimizes. He automates. But is he really thriving?
Relationships: Bdubs & Docm77, Hermitfamily, Rendog & Docm77
Comments: 6
Kudos: 61





	is this thriving?

Doc had changed.

When Bdubs had arrived in the old world, it was late- so much had already happened that he could never have been expected to keep up with it all. After recovering from his repeated crash-landings and being tended to by Keralis, his next order of business was catching up with his other old friend.

What he found out, this whole Area 77 thing and being super secretive and accusing Keralis of being an alien, seemed a little… shady, but he denied it. He convinced himself it was all just a part of the silly, over-the-top games he’d heard they’d constructed while he was gone.

~~That was his first mistake.~~

Unless he was crazy, he could have sworn something... _weird_ happened around the time of the botched auction. He didn’t have any words to articulate further than that, but looking at Doc then...

In hindsight, he _really_ shouldn’t have dismissed the strange aura about Doc then as just his imagination. _He_ of _all people_ should know…

Well, when hiding from the reality that something had happened to Doc became no longer sustainable, he panicked. And he couldn’t help it- his panic and worry had manifested itself as anger.

Anger at being scammed out of half a house. Anger at his neighbor, and how annoying his obsession with this weird GOAT system was. 

~~Anger at that GOAT thing for stealing his friend away from him. Anger at himself for denying it for so long, and for not knowing how to save him.~~

He was just trying to make Doc snap out of it when he and Keralis set up that trap to destroy that stupid statue he had carved, but then Keralis had to- he had to-

He had to get away.

And, okay… Maybe his quote-unquote "hiding place" wasn’t really that subtle. But he couldn’t quell his nature as a builder, and… on some level, he didn’t really _want_ to hide very much. He could take whatever Doc could give, on the fleeting hope that it would make him realize that he had gone too far.

He just…

He just wanted his friend back.

* * *

Standing with Grian on opposing sides to Doc was, perhaps, the most stressful thing Ren had ever had to do- and he knew how much that was saying. This wasn’t some silly pretend war (and, even if it was, at least he’d been _on_ Doc’s side for that), it was his best friend on the line. 

He knew Doc better than anyone, and he could tell something being wrong when he saw it.

When it was all over, when they made that announcement about that amusement park, he wanted to believe that was it. That Doc would stop being so dodgy and weird, and that he’d be himself again.

But he knew better.

In this world, he had washed up on an island far from anyone else, and didn’t see much of Doc anymore, but when he did, it was impossible to deny that something was up.

It was fortunate that the others decided to leave the Game of Life, and frankly, he was so desperate to face Doc one on one that he had no qualms about buying them out.

He couldn’t stop thinking about the duel they had arranged. More than that, though, he couldn’t stop thinking about Doc.

He’d heard about this GOAT thing here and there, but he had grown more familiar with how it was affecting Doc. When they met as Ren the Kid and Doc Holliday, he could see the Doc he knew being overwritten; cold- cruel, almost- and slowly but surely starting to care more about this nebulous mission of his than anything else.

He knew it was nerves that caused his crossbow to slip in his hands and let Doc land the final blow. But maybe, on some level, it was more that he didn’t want Doc to die. Yes, death was barely an inconvenience under normal circumstances, but they both knew, under the rules of the Game of Life, it was just a little more than that.

In his final moments as Ren the Kid, he looked up from where he had been laid to rest.

_“Where are you heading, son?”_

_“Nowhere special…”_

_“Hm. I’ve always wanted to go there.”_

Ren smiled weakly up at his old friend, and he could almost swear, just for a moment, that he saw him smile back.


End file.
